


Stand Up and Be Counted

by WhiteWitchDark



Series: The Flash and The Arrow [5]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 18:44:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7475649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiteWitchDark/pseuds/WhiteWitchDark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Its Gay Pride and Barry thinks it's time for the Flash to come out</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stand Up and Be Counted

Ducking around a couple of neon painted drag queens, Barry jogged at an acceptable speed over to Iris and Eddie, his arms full. Iris was grinning from ear-to-ear, but Eddie had a slightly pole-axed expression on his face. It was pretty much the same expression Iris had worn the first time she had seen the rainbow and candy pink spectacle that was a PRIDE parade. He handed each of them Sea Dog food van’s signature ‘Booty Dog’ and was trying to juggle the remaining two so he could take a bite when Joe came up with four luridly coloured cocktails, “I hope one of you two can tell these apart.”  
“Yeah.” Iris laughed as she sorted out the drinks and Barry passed the last dog to Joe.  
“That all you going to eat?” he nodded to the half-eaten dog in his other hand.  
“No, I had a bar while I was in the queue.”  
Satisfied his foster son wasn’t going to collapse from low blood sugar, Joe dug into his own one, “..Is… good.”

Suddenly two men in nothing but padlocked pink G-strings and colour matched army boots strolled by them. Joe raised his eyebrows and was about to say something, this was meant to be _family friendly_ until 8pm when a steward hustled out of the milling crowd after them with a bag of plastic wrapped sarongs over their shoulder. There was quick discussion and a lot of gesturing before the steward pointed to the exit and the two men looked at each other and shrugged. A few seconds later, their modesty, or lack thereof, was covered in rainbow skirts with the ‘Stand Up and Be Counted’ parade and PRIDE logos on it. The steward thanked them and disappeared back into the crowd, presumably to hand out another multi-coloured sarong.

Barry and Iris were hanging off each other laughing at Eddie’s expression. Joe took another bite and tried not to think about it. He didn’t dare look at Eddie.

They were just finishing when Iris gave a squeal and grabbing Barry’s hand, dashed into the crowd. Joe took the opportunity, “You okay, Eddie?”  
“Yeah, it’s just a lot…” he shook his head, “I didn’t even know Barry was gay until yesterday.”  
“Oh, Barr likes girls just fine. He just likes boys too.”  
“It must have been a shock.” It had been, but bless Becky Carter and bless Barry’s own luck that he took the one girl in his year with a gay older brother to the junior prom.  
“You should thank him though; his boyfriend made you acceptable marriage material for Iris.”  
“You don’t approve of him?”  
“No. I do not.”

A huge cheer suddenly erupted around them, ending the conversation there and the two men looked up to see the banner being hoisted up over the stage, ‘Stand Up and Be Counted’ fluttering above him, the Mayor took to the podium to welcome them to Central City’s forth PRIDE parade and carnival. He thanked the audience for attending, and then mentioned that there would be a surprise speaker. He finished by telling everyone to enjoy themselves and passed the mic over to the festival organisers who did another few announcements including reminding parents that all minors must be off the site by 8pm and all the adults to behave themselves until then and introduced Jody Andrews, a Hollywood A-lister who had recently come out as lesbian. She was followed by a gay rock star and the head of Central City’s biggest anti-homophobia charity. Suddenly Joe realised Iris was standing beside Eddie. Cisco, Caitlin and Professor Stein were standing beside her. And just like that’s he knew who the surprise speaker was and he heart jumped into this throat. He looked around, praying he was wrong but Barry was nowhere in sight. Caitlin and the Professor has strained expressions on their faces, Cisco was just taking everything in and humming a tune under his breath.  
“Please tell me he’s not going to do this?” and  
Caitlin looked at him, “Everyone told him that was a bad idea, even…” she glanced at Eddie and Iris, “Even you-know-who, but he won’t listen.”  
Joe sighed, that was his Barry alright.

“And now, I would like to welcome Central’s City’s very own hero, The Flash!” and suddenly the Flash was on the stage. He nodded to the organisers, and Joe was sure he was one only one who noticed the tension in the figure in red’s shoulders.  
He took his place before the mic, “Hello Central City.”  
The crowd cheered.  
“When I put on this mask, I do it protect the people I love. I do it so the people I fight can’t target the people I care about to hurt me. But masks are heavy. The lies that go with them – where I’ve been, who I’ve been with, they’re even heavier. But they are necessary. It’s a sad day when the name of your love is a necessary lie, for me it is, but only behind this mask. The names that follow you, the risk of attack – I’ve seen the figures – you take the risk everyday with the people you love, because you are brave. You are strong and so are they. I have another name and the people who know that person, they know the names of the people I care about. I can laugh and talk about them because with those people I’m not the Flash. I’m just another person. I can walk down the street and when I do I face those same…”  
“Look!” someone yelled in the crowd, pointing to the stop of the scaffolding. The Flash looked over where everyone was pointing. The Green Arrow was standing above the banner. Joe was sure he was the only person who saw the Flash gulp before he said “I thought you weren’t coming.”  
“How the hell did he get up there?” Eddie gasped.  
The Green Arrow dropped off the side of the scaffolding and landed on the platform. He glanced up at the banner, “Stand Up…” he paused for a moment when the mics picked up his voice and then continued, “…and Be Counted?”  
“You said this was a stupid idea.”  
“It is.” The Green Arrow shrugged as he walked slowly across the stage, “We have enough nutcases after us. Why invite more?”  
Joe thought he had a damn good point.  
“Then why…”  
“Speedy pointed a couple of things out to me.” He stopped a step away from the Flash, “First, this means something to you and secondly, there are some advantages to it.”  
“There are?” the Flash’s voice almost lost the vibration to a squeak.  
“I work as part of a team. The people we go after have to assume that there is more of us there then they can see. And Star City criminals always complain they don’t see us until it’s too late.” He looked around at the crowd. “If we do this, then Central City criminals will have to start assuming the same – Speedy and Canary might decide to crash at your place while on a shopping trip, Arsenal and Spartan might decide to catch a game here.” The Green Arrow shrugged and Joe would swear he was grinning, “You might decide you’re bored and simply come and get me. The point is; your bad guys will know Team Arrow has your back.”

“Stand Up and Be Counted right?” His hand lashed out before the Flash could move and pulled the other man into him and suddenly, the Flash and the Green Arrow were kissing on the stage. The crowd went wild. Joe groaned. He was going to kill Oliver Queen.


End file.
